As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I enjoy first person accounts of wildlife observations as they are most interesting. For example if you put a lion and a bear in a cage, the bear will shred the lion. In that, the bear seems the lord of the world, but time and again, one finds evidences occur that the bovine creatures of cloven hoof do get the upper hand sometimes and kill they adversaries in hard combat.
The following is from the Boone and Crockett archives of stories of American hunters in the 19th century, and it is of interest to know that such tales take place, as I once read of a she grizzly abandoning her startled yearling cub to a pair of wolves who killed it immediately.
"A Blackfoot Indian told me of an attempt of this kind which he witnessed. He was lying hidden by a buffalo trail in the Bad Lands, near a litde creek, waiting for a small bunch to come down to water, so that he might kill one. The buffalo came on in single file as usual, the leading animal being a young heifer. When they had nearly reached the water, and were passing under a vertical clay-wall, a grizzly bear, lying hid on a shelf of this wall, reached down, and with both paws caught the heifer about the neck and threw himself upon her. The others at once ran off, and a short struggle ensued, the bear trying to kill the heifer, and she to escape. Almost at once, however, the Indian saw a splendid young bull come rushing down the trail toward the scene of conflict, and charge the bear, knocking him down. A fierce combat ensued. The bull would charge the bear, and when he struck him fairly would knock him off his feet, often inflicting severe wounds with his sharp horns.
The bear struck at the bull, and tried to catch him by the head or shoulders, and to hold him, but this he could not do. After fifteen or twenty minutes of fierce and active fighting, the bear had received all the punishment he cared for, and tried to escape, but the bull would not let him go, and kept up the attack until he had killed his adversary. Even after the bear was dead the bull would gore the carcass and sometimes lift it clear of the ground on his horns. He seemed insane with rage, and, notwithstanding the fact that most of the skin was torn from his head and shoulders, appeared to be looking about for something else to fight. The Indian was very much afraid lest the bull should discover and kill him, and was greatly relieved when he finally left the bear and went off to join his band."
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919; Grinnell, George Bird, 1849-1938
Granted this was not a Kodiak, but a Montana grizzly, and a two year old bull is not a huge 7 year old bull, but then again the Blackfeet were the grizzlies of the plains, and he was terrified the bull would kill him.
Unless one pays attention to the anecdotes of real observations, one never does fully comprehend how the world really works.
"Even the lords of the land have a bad day, and on that day, they become the prey."
- Lame Cherry
agtG
